Residents at a care home for disabled people have spoken of their shock after being given just two months to find somewhere else to live.

Charity Leonard Cheshire Care, which runs the Honresfeld home in Littleborough, Rochdale , told residents and their families they could no longer afford to keep the home open in a letter sent out at the end of January.

The 22 residents - some of whom have lived at the home for 30 years - have until the end of March to make alternative arrangements.

Frances Bland’s son Carl, 36, has a degenerative condition which has left him bed-bound and unable to speak.

He has lived at Honresfeld, on Halifax Road, for two years and Frances, of Heywood, says she has been left ‘devastated’ by the news.

She said: “They should have the right to live where they want and they want to live here.

“Everyone here gets on together and the staff are brilliant.

“I’m just devastated. They are all upset, they don’t know what’s going to happen.

“I don’t want them going here, there and everywhere, where they don’t know any of the staff.”

Two online petitions protesting against the closure have been signed by more than 2,000 people.

Other residents said Honresfeld feels like ‘one big happy family’ and news of its closure has led to feelings of ‘fear, panic and distress’.

Honresfeld resident Harry Roach added: “It can’t be right that we can be thrown out after two months. I’ve been here 10 years and I’m happy here.

“I thought that they would at least give us a year.

“When they said two months I thought ‘You are having a laugh’.

“Two months to sort your life out? It would be hard for somebody not disabled, let alone someone in a wheelchair.

“But the staff have said they will stay for us until it closes, they won’t just abandon us.”

A spokesperson for Leonard Cheshire says the charity has been forced to make the decision as the home is no longer ‘financially viable’ and the building would require substantial investment in order to bring it up to modern day standards.

Rochdale council pays for the care of nine of the residents at the home, while the others are funded by a variety of different sources including the NHS.